News & Tall Tales. 1800s.
Chinese Interpreters in San Francisco
° Chinese in San Francisco ° Chinese Interpreters ° Anti-Coolie Tax ° Chinese Merchants ° Buddhist Temple 1856 ° Little Pete ° Opium (China, Europe, North America)
May 8, 1880, Daily Alta California, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
EVIDENCE IN A CRIMINAL CASE
A Chinaman was convicted of perjury on testimony showing that his evidence in a criminal case before an examining magistrate, was in direct conflict with that given afterward at the jury trial. His evidence before the magistrate was proved by the official short-hand reporter, who took it down as interpreted; and a verdict of guilty was returned. The Chinaman appealed, on the ground that the reporter's notes were hearsay, and should have been verified at the trial for perjury by the interpreter, or some other witness who understood Chinese, who could then have been subjected to cross-examination. The Supreme Court sustained this objection, and reversed the judgment of conviction.
December 7, 1883, Daily Alta California, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
CHINESE INTERPRETERS
Enforcement of the Restriction Act Place at their Mercy
It is positively affirmed that a reward has been offered for the life of the Chinese interpreter, Fon Sing, and that the lives of his wife and children have also been threatened. No other cause for this public defiance of law can be assigned, than the fact that Fon Sing told the truth in one case, and promised to continue to do so. The Court Interpreter, Moy Non, has officiated in numerous cases, but none of his countrymen have sought to molest him. It is a very pretty riddle to solve, and is, to say the least of it, rather suggestive. The Court Interpreter is armed with unlimited power for evil, and it certainly behooves the authorities to leave no stone unturned to replace him with a white man.
In several cases where a Caucasian interpreter has been called in, his translations have been contradicted, his knowledge of the Chinese tongue ridiculed, and the Court thereby embarrassed. The Court is powerless to detect fraud in the books of Chinese firms, and is compelled to rely solely upon the translations of a Chinaman whose life would not be worth a nickel were he a stumbling block in the path of the Chinese firms. Those books are produced as evidence that the applicant for debarkation resided here formerly, and it rests altogether with the interpreter whether he gives the Court a true or a false reply. It is humiliating to the last degree to behold the administration of the law placed at the mercy of one whose every instinct despises it, and whose very existence depends upon his perjuring himself to thwart it.
January 13, 1884, Daily Alta California, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
Circuit Court.
In the Circuit Court, yesterday morning, Ng Lin Chin was discharged on testimony of former residence. The case of Chow Yon Poy, against whom rests the charge of unlawful residence in the United States, was continued until 11 A.M. next Saturday, owing to the absence of Judge Hoffman. The defendant is in the custody of the Marshal, and is held upon an affidavit of Assistant District Attorney Carroll Cook.
Moy Jim Man, the Chinese interpreter for the United States Courts, chaffed in a hamorous (cq.) way Attorney Graves, yesterday morning, concerning several cases which the lawyer had lost on the previous day.
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